Given the widespread availability and usage of the Internet by consumers, many organizations (e.g., an enterprise, a small business, a government agency, etc.) have become interested in being able to effectively monitor the content and commentary provided by such consumers. Interactive websites such as social networks and blogs provide a wealth of useful information that can be advantageously used by a business.
It is possible to monitor the content of social media sites to identify a range of topics that are of interest to various users of these sites. By knowing about and understanding these topics, the entity can then act upon that information to increase sales/revenue and/or visibility. It would be very desirable to allow the businesses to stay informed of actionable social networking content, for example, to identify potential customers and possible sales leads or to identify problematic situations that may require immediate involvement of customer service personnel.
For example, consider a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application, which is designed to facilitate the ability of a business to create, develop, and build relationships with its customers or potential customers. It might be valuable for customers of the CRM application to understand a nature of conversation in social media networks, for example, to identify potential customers and possible sales leads.
As another example, brand managers of various entities are often interested in monitoring commentary on the internet regarding respective brands and/or competitors' brands. Brand managers may read the commentary to gauge interest in their marketing materials, receive feedback regarding their products, and/or take further action regarding any postings that warrant some type of follow-up response.
Current approaches for monitoring social media content are inefficient and require the brand manager or administrator of the entity to sift through a plurality of social media content in order to arrive at messages of particular interest. This is extremely time consuming and inefficient, and often doesn't provide an accurate data that is of particular interest to the entity.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved approach to process and filter communications related to an organization based of specific needs of the organization. Other additional objects, features, and advantages of the invention are described in the detailed description, figures, and claims.